For the first time in almost 20 years, the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong during the nationwide Lunar New Year holiday fell. According to figures by the Hong Kong Immigration Department, mainland visitors in Hong Kong for the t...

India’s beef industry has seen increased attacks from Hindu nationalists, who have seized cattle trucks and blockaded meat processing plants, in an effort to disrupt trade in the world’s second-largest beef exporter.

Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Catholics traditionally mark the week known as Maslenitsa leading up to what they call Great Lent by burning an effigy of a “Lady Maslenitsa.” But some towns updated their traditions to mark the ongoing con...

Hong Kong announced Wednesday that it will offer a relief package worth $37 million to businesses that were affected by last year’s pro-democracy protests. Financial Secretary John Tsang reportedly said that the protests may have diminis...

Thailand’s anti-corruption agency on Tuesday indicted 250 former MPs for alleged unconstitutional behavior in attempting to amend a charter. This move comes less than a month after former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was barred fro...

Japan’s typically apolitical Imperial House appears to be taking a stronger stance over the direction nationalist politicians are taking in downplaying the country’s past war crimes, an effort predominantly led by Prime Minister Shinzo A...

The U.S. Air Force plans to send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to an air show slated for October in Seoul, according to its Web site Wednesday. According to the U.S. Air Combat Command website, the F-22 demonstration team plans to c...

Hiking is South Koreans' favorite pastime, with dogs chosen as their most beloved pet, a poll showed Wednesday. According to the survey of 1,700 South Koreans aged 13 and older, taken by Gallup Korea, 14 percent of the respondents said ...

The H-6K strategic bomber of the People's Liberation Army equipped with KD-20 cruise missiles is capable of attacking all US military facilities from Northeast Asia to Guam, according to an expert in ...

Four remote villages where King Sejong, the creator of the Korean alphabet, went to cure an eye infection and put the finishing touches on his unique writing system, have been renovated to attract modern visitors, officials in the centra...

Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-young is making a big push to absorb young tech firms around the world as part of efforts to create new software and service offerings and finally secure new revenue sources. Since chairman Lee K...

The environment ministry said Wednesday it will conduct an ecological survey of the nation's four major rivers by 2016 to address various problems revealed last year with the previous administration's controversial project to revitalize ...

Last month, a southern white rhino named Thandi gave birth to a healthy calf in South Africa. It was a remarkable moment, the kind that gives conservationists a brief reprieve from big-picture gloom.That’s because in 2012, much of Thandi...

South Korean stocks rallied for a sixth straight session to reach nearly a five-month high on Wednesday as optimism over monetary easing in the U.S. and the eurozone economies sparked massive foreign buying, analysts said. The local curr...

Music is nothing without its deep rich history, and in an effort to continue to keep the spirit of gugak ― traditional Korean music ― alive, the National Gugak Center will be launching a 40-week concert series to make the genre more acce...

(ChinaPost.com.tw) - A famed 81-year-old Chinese dissident writer was given a suspended 2 1/2-year prison sentence Wednesday on charges of running an illegal business, apparently because he published articles critical of the country's pr...

A handful of private equity firms and a local builder proposed Wednesday to buy the controlling stake in formerly debt-ridden South Korean builder Kumho Industrial Co., whose sales package includes major shares in the country's No. 2 air...

Brian Williams, the star anchor of U.S. broadcaster NBC, was suspended for six months without pay, for admittedly lying about “coming under fire” in Iraq. The scandal evoked a faint memory of mine during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s...

China’s State-run media on Wednesday published for the first time an “authoritative interpretation” of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “Four Comprehensives” political theory that is set to “guide the overall strategies of China’s national...

Yellow dust swept into Korea on Sunday carrying with it fine dust particles that contain various pollutants, including carcinogens. Although the yellow dust phenomenon occurs primarily in the spring, the country was hit on Monday by what...

State media said on Wednesday a bus overturned on a highway in Xinjiang, killing 22 people and injuring 38. The official Xinhua News Agency said the accident occurred shortly before midnight on Tuesday night in Kashgar prefecture. It sai...

The second year of President Park Geun-hye's administration showed a regressive trend in the realization of human rights, Amnesty International said Wednesday. In its annual report, the global human rights group said various concerns su...

(ChinaPost.com.tw) - Hong Kong's leadership Wednesday blamed months of pro-democracy protests as the economy fell well short of predicted growth in 2014, and said “prolonged political bickering” could do more damage to investor confidence.

Shortly after America’s Republican Party trounced the Democrats and gained control of the Senate in last November’s midterm congressional elections, Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader, appealed to his colleagues not to be “s...

POLICE detained three passengers after a bomb scare forced an Air China flight with more than 100 passengers on board to make an emergency landing in southwest China yesterday. Flight CA1336 from Nanning

The National Assembly is hitting Samsung’s nerve with the so-called “Lee Hak-soo bill” tailored to target chairman Lee Kun-hee’s three scions and his two former key aides.A total of 104 lawmakers in the 300-member unicameral house signed...

South Koreans use significantly less electricity at home than people in other OECD countries.According to the Korea Energy Economics Institute, South Koreans used 1,278 kWh of electricity on average in the home in 2012, ranking 26th out ...

The Seoul International Women’s Association is set to get Caribbean for its annual fund-raising gala.The function to be held at the Conrad Hotel on Saturday, March 7, will feature a silent auction, cocktail reception and a four-course Ca...

The city's budget for the next fiscal year includes a HK$34 billion economic relief package, in an attempt by the government to heal a society disrupted by political squabbles and challenged by a fast-ageing population.

Uber Korea, the local unit of ride-booking app creator Uber Technologies Inc., said Wednesday it will make its ride-sharing service UberX free of charge, in an apparent move to counteract the Seoul city government's ban on the disputed ...

The People's Liberation Army Navy conducted another test flight of its JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile again last month, Bill Gertz, senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon writes in an ...

The city's "best peacemaker" Tung Chee-hwa should talk to Beijing on Hong Kong's behalf, according to a local eye doctor who was an arts adviser to the administration of former US president George Bush senior.

The National Tax Service’s renewed website is causing inconvenience to users due to its complicated security measures and lack of compatibility.In order to use Hometax, on which the NTS spent over 200 billion won ($182 million), users ha...

The Korean Heritage Preservation Society, Yeol, will be presenting an English-language lecture series this year, delving into Korean art, culture and history. The series will deal with subjects ranging from traditional music to K-pop, th...

Dr. Barry Kerzin, doctor to the Dalai Lama, will give a talk on death and dying in Seoul on Saturday.Kerzin, a medical doctor, has lived in Dharamsala, India, for 25 years, serving as a doctor to high lamas including the Dalai Lama, and ...

Australia plans to charge fees to foreign nationals buying residential property and fine those who break foreign investment laws in an attempt to cool one of the world's hottest property markets. Treasurer Joe Hockey said on Tuesday he h...

McLaren Formula One driver Fernando Alonso will miss this week's final pre-season test in Barcelona after leaving hospital on Wednesday following a big crash three days ago. The Spaniard, a double world champion, smiled and waved to repo...

A sanitation worker cleans up debris of firecrackers in Shenyang, capital of northeast Liaoning Province yesterday. Many businesses set off fireworks yesterday, which was the first working day of the Lunar New Year, leading to air pollut...

Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo said Wednesday he will look into the money-for-prisoner scheme used by former West Germany in tackling the issue of South Korean abductees in North Korea, rekindling concerns about its feasibility.In his debut ...

Stage performances in Korea will help raise funds for local women’s charities and campaign against abuse, with the first kicking off this weekend in Busan.They are part of V-Day, an international movement started by “Vagina Monologues” a...

Among the most closely watched commitments made by Greece to obtain a four-month extension of aid from its official creditors is a promise to overhaul its notoriously inefficient system of tax collection and administration.Skeptics, part...

Human-to-human transmission of a deadly tick virus has been reported for the first time in South Korea, health authorities said Wednesday, raising concerns over the potential spread of the disease. Four medical staff in Seoul were confir...

China’s airlines operated over 60,000 flights during the week-long Spring Festival holiday travel season, up 7.8 percent from last year, according to an article posted on the Ministry of Transport website

British police said on Tuesday they believe that three London schoolgirls who travelled to Turkey and are thought to be trying to join militant Sunni Islamist group Islamic State have now crossed into Syria.

The Gender Equality Ministry has been seeking to inflate the success of its child care program without increasing spending by pushing to recruit families that do not require financial support, while blanking those most in need, according...

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday lashed out at the BJP-led Central government for allegedly trying to revert back to the "exploitative" Land Acquisition Act, 1894 enacted by the Britishers, saying it will ...

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked party MPs to counter the "myths" propagated by the opposition parties against land bill, BJP on Wednesday launched a major initiative to project the good elements of the new bill introduced by it ...

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Wednesday dismissed speculation that Rahul Gandhi could "run away" from politics and maintained that he is made of "sterner staff" and will return to lead the party.

SEREMBAN, Feb 25 (Bernama) -- The state government is prepared to face the hot and dry weather due to the equinox phenomenon as the water supply in the four dams in the state is adequate for the people.

<strong>JOHOR BARU</strong>: The Taman Sri Puteri bus terminal in Jalan Skudai here, which had been operating for the past 15 years, will terminate its operations effective April 1. Central Johor Baru Municipal Council (MPJBT...

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has invested Bt1 million to purchase 800 transparent dustbins and 165,000 transparent trash bags to be installed at key locations across the city to make it harder for terrorists to plant bom...

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday he respected the National Anti-Corruption Commission's resolution to seek his impeachment and that of his former deputy Suthep Thaugsuban for their alleged mishandling of the bloody ...

Viet Nam is committed to the purposes and principles of the United Nations charter and firmly believes that peace and diplomacy, law and reason should prevail, Nguyen Phuong Nga, the nation's Permanent Representative at the UN, has s...

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday it would soon become clear if Iran is serious about ending suspicions over its nuclear ambitions, as world powers appeared to inch towards a historic deal with Tehran.

President Benigno Aquino III's aunt, former Tarlac governor Margarita Cojuangco, admitted that there was a proposal sent to Vice President Jejomar Binay to head the government, GMA 7 news program “24-Oras” reported on Tue...

Nearly three decades after the peaceful overthrow of the Marcos regime, the key players of the 1986 EDSA Revolution have all gone their separate ways -- some to the silence of the grave, others to different points on the political spectr...

Though it offers more benefits for insured patients, the amended Health Insurance Law, which took effect last month, faces complaints about irrational provisions like refusing coverage if they do not go to the hospital designated on thei...

MANILA - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) bids and awards committee has declared a failure of bidding for the lease of additional optical mark reader (OMR) and precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines as well as the new direct re...

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama will veto on Tuesday (Wednesday in PHL) a bill that would have allowed Congress to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

MANILA – Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal on Wednesday gave another reason why he believes they are not behind the killing of a Special Action Force (SAF) trooper captured on video.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Tuesday swiftly delivered on his vow to veto a Republican bill approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, leaving the long-debated project in limbo for another indefinite period.

Eurozone finance ministers on Tuesday backed new reforms proposed by Greece in exchange for a four-month financial lifeline that will keep the country afloat and in the single currency for the time being.

CABINET MINISTERS in charge of economic affairs yesterday set aside a budget of Bt5.8 billion to protect and increase the number of water buffaloes after recent reports indicated the species would become extinct in five years.

The United States is "deeply concerned" about North Korea's nuclear advances, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday after a U.S. research institute predicted Pyongyang could possess as many as 100 nuclear weapons within five years.

By Abdul Maqsood Azizi on 25 February 2015 PUL-I-ALAM (Pajhwok): Education officials of central Logar province on Wednesday alleged that land plots dedicated for teachers were given to Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) without...

By Javed Hamim Kakar on 25 February 2015 KABUL (Pajhwok): Prominent Pakistan’s Awami National Party (ANP) leader Haji Ghulam Bilour says he is optimistic about Afghanistan’s reconciliation process and that Islamabad has been left with no...

By Pajhwok Report on 25 February 2015 KABUL (Pajhwok): The residents of Deh Sabz district of capital Kabul on Wednesday asked the government to relocate or shut down factories in the area which were causing environmental pollution hazard...

By Pajhwok Report on 25 February 2015 JALALABAD (Pajhwok): At least eight persons have died and tens of houses destroyed as a result of flash floods in eastern Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan provinces and 29 people lost their lives in f...

A fireball spotted streaking across the night sky late on Monday in the western United States was almost certainly the body of a rocket used by China in December to launch a satellite, an astronomer said Tuesday.

By Javed Hamim Kakar on 25 February 2015 KABUL (Pajhwok): President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in a cabinet meeting granted the provincial council members the right of evaluation of performance of local departments. Tawab Ghorzang, spokesman ...

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed a reform on Tuesday that would authorise foreign immigration and customs agents to carry arms while in the country, an issue that has long been a source of friction with the United States.

Governments are failing to protect millions of civilians from violence by states and armed groups, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, describing the global response to widespread conflict from Nigeria to Syria as "shameful and inef...

Katherine Dhanani, a long-time diplomat with deep experience of African affairs, will have to be confirmed by the Senate for the role in Somalia, where extremists have targeted government officials in a bloody campaign.

At least 132 Islamic State fighters have been killed since Saturday in fighting with Kurdish militia backed by U.S.-backed air strikes in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasaka, a group monitoring the conflict said.

Eddie Ray Routh, 27, was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killings of famed sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a Texas shooting range in February 2013.

By Naseem Hottak on 25 February 2015 QALAT (Pajhwok): Officials in southern Zabul said that only one individual among 30 passengers kidnapped by unidentified gunmen was released on Wednesday. A day earlier, gunmen abducted 30 passengers ...

On the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Khojaly genocide an event within the framework of “Justice for Khojaly” international awareness campaign was held in the headquarters of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum in Istanbul on February 24.

Tolerance is what most countries urgently need amid the wave of racist, discriminatory, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic sentiments which have taken hold across Europe and to an extent the western world over the past months.